ITV

Tag: FA Premier League

  • ESS wins South Asia broadcast, mobile & internet rights to EPL soccer

    ESS wins South Asia broadcast, mobile & internet rights to EPL soccer

    MUMBAI: In a bidding battle that finally became a three-horse race, ESPN Star Sports has won exclusive broadcast rights for the Barclays English Premier League (EPL) for the Indian subcontinent for the next three seasons through to 2010.

    Incumbent ESS beat back bids by Zee Sports and Nimbus Sport to secure the EPL rights. Yes TV, which is owned by Malysian firm Astro and had made a pan-Asian bid, withdrew from the bid process in the last round.

    The agreement grants ESS the right to broadcast 370 matches per season throughout India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mongolia and the Maldives via television, broadband and mobile technologies.

    Commenting on the acquisition, ESS managing director Jamie Davis said: “Our Company has been the catalyst for increasing the popularity of the EPL in India, ordinarily a cricket crazy nation. Our world class studio shows, intensive marketing campaigns, and localisation efforts including the introduction of Hindi commentary have made the EPL a highly watched sports property. We are very excited to continue our efforts to deliver the best of English football to the growing breed of football fans across India and the subcontinent. Our strong relationship with the FA Premier League has been built on our commitment to grow the EPL brand via live matches and over 400 hours annually of original, football programming.”

    Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: “ESPN Star Sports has indeed played a key role in growing the EPL brand in India. Their commitment to sports and to the EPL specifically gives us the confidence that this is the right partnership for the Premier League. As we move into an age of new media and all the flexibility and possibilities that come with this new technology, we are certain that this relationship will continue to flourish to the benefit of fans across the subcontinent.”

    ESS’ array of original support programming for the EPL includes Nokia Football Crazy, Football Focus, Goals, Tiger FC Locker Room, Here We Go, Tiger First Edition and Football Extra. Over 200 million viewers across Asia tune into the EPL matches and packaged programmes each week. This season’s addition of Club EPL, Paula’s Perfect Ten and Jamie’s Greatest Hits further expands the overall football demographic to target women and youth.

    “Keeping the young fans in mind we plan to enhance our EPL offering on mobileESPN substantially. Football fans can look forward to getting live scores, match schedules, player statistics, contests and much more from mobileESPN going forward,” said Sricharan Iyengar, vice-president, New Media and Marketing, ESPN Software India.

    ESS has also extended its agreement with the FA Premier League to 12 other countries; Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Brunei, The Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan and Macau. These rights also include television, mobile and internet platforms.

    The lucrative territories where ESS has lost out include Singapore, where pay TV operator Starhub won and Hong Kong which went to PCCW. ESS has also not managed to retain the rights for China and Thailand, which went to Guangdong Soccer channel and UBC respectively.

  • BSkyB’s revenues up eight per cen

    BSkyB’s revenues up eight per cen

    MUMBAI: UK pay TV service provider BSkyB has annnounced results for the year ended 30 June 2006.

    Revenue increased by eight per cent to £4.1 billion. Operating profit increased by seven per cent to £877 million, an operating margin of 21 per cent.

    DTH subscribers increased to 8.176 million, registering a growth of 77,000 in the final quarter and 389,000 in the year. Sky+ households increased by 75 per cent to 1.553 million. Multiroom households increased by 62 per cent to 1.047 million. This represents a 13 per cent penetration of total DTH subscribers.

    Preparations were made for the launch of Sky Broadband following the acquisition of Easynet Group. During the year, the company launched Sky HD, new customer management systems were implemented for all DTH customers and key rights to the FA Premier League secured for the 07/08 to 09/10 seasons.

    In addition were major contracts agreed with movie studio and third party channel partners. BSkyB also announced the creation of over 2,000 new jobs for customer advisors and home installation engineers.

    BsSkyB CEO James Murdoch said, “Our industry is changing faster than ever before and for Sky, 2006 has been an important and exciting year. The business and the team have performed well delivering good levels of customer growth, in line with our plans, and strong growth in both revenues and profitability.

    “We have a clear vision for the future growth and direction of our business and we feel encouraged by the strong demand our customers show for new entertainment and communications services. With a continued focus on providing more choice, flexibility and control, we feel confident as we look ahead to the substantial opportunity this market holds for us.”

  • Sky bags English Premier League rights

    Sky bags English Premier League rights

    MUMBAI: The English Premier League (EPL) has awarded three live television rights packages to British pay television service BSkyB in the first sale of broadcasting contracts under new European Union rules.

    BSkyB, which has had a monopoly on live league broadcasts since 1992, won three of the six packages that went on sale. Bidding for the remaining packages will begin shortly. EPL says, ‘The FA Premier League is in a position to announce that it has awarded three out of the six packages of live rights to BSkyB. We will be proceeding to a second round of bidding for the remaining three packages in due course.in due course”.

    BSkyB has used soccer to help attract eight million subscribers, making it the U.K.’s biggest pay-TV company. Its 1.02 billion pound purchase of the sole rights to 138 live games for three seasons under the existing accord had prompted the European Commission to order the league to split the sale into six packages and award no more than five to any one company.

    Media reports indicate that The Premier League has never revealed the mechanics of the auction process, but it understood that it reserved the right to re-open the bidding in the event that offers were either too low, or if there was little to choose between two competing bids.

    The rules allow for third and subsequent rounds of bidding, with the provision that the auction concludes by the start of next season in mid-August.